Technology in the classroom can help tackle structural change and increase equal opportunities: How the city of Gelsenkirchen is investing in its future through digital education with 40,000 iPads.
Where other municipalities and federal states have been cutting funding for years, the city of Gelsenkirchen believes that a more prosperous future can only be attained one way – through education.
In 2022, the city of Gelsenkirchen decided to equip its 74 schools, totaling 39,000 students, with iPads on a 1:1 basis. In its efforts to acquire the optimal administrative solution, the city of Gelsenkirchen insisted on a system that has long been established on the market and has grown in the educational sector. Local government bodies opted for long-lasting Apple iPads in combination with the market-leading MDM (Mobile Device Management) software Jamf School.
Purposeful deployments: driving digital transformation
Gelsenkirchen’s digital education initiative is driven by more than just providing students with iPads. The city’s thoughtful deployment of 40,000 iPads, combined with Jamf School’s device management platform, reflects a strategic effort to create equal opportunities for students from diverse backgrounds. By integrating tools that are carefully selected to enhance learning outcomes, Gelsenkirchen aims to support each student’s unique educational journey.
The use of Jamf School ensures that devices are managed in a way that empowers both students and teachers. With features like the Jamf Teacher, Student, and Parent apps, personalized learning is not only possible but also optimized for the modern classroom. By taking this comprehensive approach, Gelsenkirchen is positioning its students to succeed in an increasingly digital world, ensuring that digital education benefits all learners, regardless of their starting point.
Digital transformation to aid socioeconomic challenges
Increasing opportunities for children by way of digital education, thus actively supporting a positive structural change observed within urban societies. Although it may sound intuitive, this sort of thing seldom occurs in Germany – only a few school authorities in the country have, so far, launched one-to-one provisioning for pupils and such comprehensive support services for teachers and schools; and one of these is the City of Gelsenkirchen. In doing so, they are pursuing various goals: to increase educational opportunities for children, to impart skills relevant to the labor market such as media and digital literacy from the ground up, to increase individual support opportunities and, ultimately, give their own urban structural change a much needed boost.
Like many former industrial cities around the world, Gelsenkirchen is facing a number of challenges as a result of adjusting to the ongoing structural changes that have characterized this area as one with low income, high unemployment and social turmoil.
Watch the video to find out how they identified and leverage digitization, digitalization and modern classroom management as their focus to increase educational opportunities for all children, shaping an urban and social upward trend in their community:
Equal opportunities through digital transformation
"Even children with dyslexia can now be offered different types of support. They can now show what they are capable of and are no longer restricted to merely writing everything they know down on paper," says teacher Tanja Klinger from the Georgstraße Elementary School, outlining the early successes of the initiative launched in 2022. It is not only at city and school management level that Jamf and iPads are seen as central pillars for the ambitious goals of equal educational opportunities as well as a positive upward trend in actively managed structural change. The teachers are also enthusiastic about new teaching opportunities with iPads and the many individual successes of their students with Jamf in the classroom.
Jamf School - the right solution for iPads
The right digital infrastructure is essential for the educational success of German schools, says Christian Spiegel, principal of an elementary school in Gelsenkirchen: "The iPad and our partner, Jamf, are a success factor for us. Because digitally-supported education does not happen by itself. It needs powerful software such as Jamf School, which was developed as a cost-effective MDM solution for modern digital teaching. Jamf School allows for the easy management of all Apple devices. The platform provides simple tools for the IT department while empowering teachers, students and parents to curate individualized learning. The free apps Jamf Teacher, Jamf Student and Jamf Parent are also available for this purpose. Administrators can easily manage the inventory, deployment and security of every single device. The system can be integrated into existing IT solutions more easily than ever before.
We have the ability to control and distribute apps very well. We have the possibility to see exactly whether the device is currently online. These are things that work very quickly in everyday life. This naturally makes our daily work with Apple iPads easier.
Enhancing student safety with Jamf Safe Internet
Recognizing the importance of student safety beyond the classroom, Gelsenkirchen has expanded its digital education initiative with Jamf Safe Internet. While the city’s schools already ensured secure internet access on campus, challenges arose when students took their iPads home, connecting to unregulated home networks. Understanding that many parents may struggle with setting appropriate controls, Gelsenkirchen implemented Jamf Safe Internet to maintain protection for all students, regardless of their location.
This added layer of security allows students to focus on learning without distraction or exposure to harmful content, and it reassures parents and educators that student safety is prioritized both inside and outside school. Teachers have already observed more engaged learning at home, with students increasingly using their iPads for homework and collaborative projects. Jamf Safe Internet has created a safe and supportive environment for digital learning, strengthening trust in the city’s digital education program.
Jamf Safe Internet has a huge impact on children's safety. Since the children hardly notice the safety mechanism, they concentrate much more on the desired content and begin to understand the iPad as a tool.
As a platform, Jamf enables teachers, school administrators and the municipality of Gelsenkirchen to achieve their goals through a modern classroom and learning.
Do you also want to make the transition to a truly modern, digital classroom? Try Jamf School for free today.